A few weeks later…
Ranma was at his mother’s home. He made a habit of spending a few hours a week there after school, when his father and the Tendos thought he was out training his skills. In point of fact, he was training.
“Keep your guard up, Ranma. You never know when your,” Nodoka stopped talking suddenly, after she was a blur of motion and her shinai was sweeping towards her son.
Ranma caught the wooden weapon on his own and pushed against it, throwing his mother slightly off balance. An all-too-gentle tap to her weapon hand followed. “Disarmed,”
Nodoka chuckled. “Are you sure you haven’t practiced kendo?”
Ranma snorted. “Pops and weapons don’t mix. ‘A weapon can be disarmed, boy, and then what are you going to do?’ But we trained with the basics all the same. If you don’t know what a weapon can do, it’s harder to read your opponent.”
Nodoka snorted. “That sounds like Genma. A dash of wisdom in a pound of arrogance.”
“I also get daily practice against Kuno,” Ranma added with a grin. “Although he doesn’t last long.”
Nodoka smiled back. “Maybe I should take him as a student and make him a decent sparring partner.”
Mother and son looked at eachother for a moment before sharing a short laugh. “That reminds me, Ranma. One of the books Nabiki wanted arrived. Be a dear and take it to her?”
“Sure Mom,” Ranma said. After all, what could happen on the way home?
The most intense training man could endure. A formal challenge. A week-long trek across Japan, an old crone’s restaurant, and parts of Nebraska. Now, finally, the man- no. The thing responsible for all his misery was in sight!
Ranma was running along an iron fence when he felt something. Purely on instinct, he jumped up and, bringing Nabiki’s book behind him.
Ryoga’s foot sailed through the space Ranma vacated. “Prepare to die, Ranma!” the lost boy bellowed.
“Hey, Ryoga,” Ranma called cheerfully. Hey, any day he actually got one on his mom was a good day. “You’re a week late.” He landed gently on the grass, watching Ryoga’s more forceful impact. “Not half-bad, considering it’s you.”
Ryoga smirked. “You should be grateful for the extra week of life! Now fight!”
Ryoga lunged at Ranma with a flurry of jabs which Ranma evaded with a calm expression. “Whoa! Hold it! I have to deliver this!” he yelled, waving Nabiki’s book.
“Is that so?” Ryoga sneered, swiping at the book now. “Then I’ll destroy it and then you can fight me with a clear conscience!”
Ranma’s expression became confused as he pulled the book from harm’s way. He twisted around the next blow with a handstand and jumped up nose to nose with Ryoga, the book balanced on his head. “You’re getting slow, Ryoga!”
“Aa!” Ryoga yelped, lunging in for another punch. “How dare you mock me?!”
Ranma ducked, Ryoga’s fist going over his head but under the book. “Man! You really are slow!” he said as he calmly punched Ryoga in the nose and caught the falling book with the same hand.
The force of the blow sent Ryoga falling backwards, stunned at how utterly he’d been dominated.
Which was when Akane wandered by. “Oh, hi, Ryoga.”
Ryoga’s eyes went wide at the sound of his love, which is when he registered another sound and realized he was falling into a fountain and it was well past any chance of recovering his balance. Images of being exposed as P-chan went through his head…and then his nose hurt.
Ranma sighed as he held Ryoga upside down over the fountain by pinching his nose. He had promised not to tell anyone, after all, and he was the one to push Ryoga into the fountain.
“Are you two fighting again?” Akane complained. “O mean, really.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Ranma countered. “Ryoga keeps attacking me.”
It was all too much for Ryoga’s ego. “Dow you will bay!” he tried to yell, kicking at Ranma. It should have been easy; Ranma was trapped within arm’s length and both arms were occupied. Yet somehow the evil bastard dodged it!
Ranma scowled at Ryoga and delivered a rapid series of blows to his outstretched limbs, tangling then together until his erstwhile rival resembled a pretzel rather than a martial artist. “Ungrateful jerk! Hey, Akane, have you found your piggy yet?”
Ryoga was in complete shock. Ranma was going to out him? There was no honor in that! And how did he end up in this position anyway!? Ranma was good, only a deluded fool could deny that, but he’d always been able to pull through a good fight out of it! He hadn’t landed a single blow and was completely at Ranma’s mercy!
“P-chan?” Akane wondered, oblivious to Ryoga’s silent angst. “What makes you ask?”
Ranma smirked and let Ryoga drop, only to catch him on an outstretched leg. “Just kidding,” he assured his rival, not unkindly.
Ryoga’s ability to conceive his own distress was overcome by sheer panic, and he just shivered.
Akane stared at the humiliated Ryoga and walked up to Ranma.
Ranma blinked. “Hm?”
Akane’s face became a mask of rage and in one smooth motion she grabbed Ryoga, spun him safely to dry land while using his mass to add momentum to the spinkick that sent Ranma spinning into the sky. “Stop picking on poor Ryoga!”
Not for the first time, Ranma found himself wishing he could fly in human form, or that he would get splashed before he made landfall. However, the cursed springs of Jusenkyo delight in triggering the curse at the worst moments, and Ranma was forced to rely on his skills to land gracefully in a tree on Furinkan grounds.
He crouched on a sturdy branch and pondered. “That was weird. Ryoga’s always been strong, and he’s been training in the mountains. But he’s never been that weak. Wait,” he wondered, looking at his hands. “Could it be? Could I have gotten that much stronger?”
Back at the impromptu arena, Akane was resetting Ryoga’s various dislocations. Or trying to, anyway. “Does this go like this?” Krak. “Maybe not. Um, anyway, Ryoga, maybe you shouldn’t challenge Ranma anymore. He hasn’t figured it out yet, but when we spar he can barely hold back enough to teach me. Since training in that Amazon technique, he’s gotten a lot stronger and faster.”
Ryoga couldn’t take it anymore. Using what few limbs were able to work, he fled.
Akane watched Ryoga crawl off. “Ryoga? Wow, he can move fast on just one hand.”
Ryoga found a puddle as soon as he was far away from Akane. As a piglet, his limbs were simply too short to be so entangled, and he was free of Ranma’s humiliation. Naturally he ignored the logical paradox of hating Ranma for cursing him in the first place while embracing his curse’s usefulness. Naturally, karma reared its ugly head and announced itself with the bell of a bicycle.
“Aiyah. Piggy make for good ramen!”
And so it was that Ryoga found himself en route to the Nekohanten, struggling against the happy, lavender-haired amazon the entire way…
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(Posted Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:39)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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